Ladies Who Brunch

Holy moly, what a beautiful weekend we had a few days ago. After coming off such a fabulous anniversary celebration, it made me even happier to have a long awaited brunch date at Bar Boulud with my ladies. The best part is that Amanda was able to join us since she wasn't leaving town until Monday. That made all of us ecstatic since Amanda is really the missing link in our dinner crew. Myself, Allison, Abbey, Kristine and Amanda are the original five who used to plan dinners together as often as possible so, with Amanda having moved to Atlanta two years ago, we've missed her very often when we've gotten together.

I'd been drooling for a while over how good the croque monsiuers look at Bar Boulud so the girls indulged my request to finally go there and try them! Um, I don't really need to say more than this:

They do everything homemade from the bechamel sauce to even curing the ham. It is so delicious, I can't even say. We had terrific mimosas while catching up, we laughed just like we always used to, and we reflected on how incredibly lucky we all are to have one another. It's pretty awesome where our conversations find themselves these days vs. in the past. We've all grown so much and we've shared in some really significant changes over the past few years. I constantly say this when I talk about friendship but I simply love what years do to build relationships. It's all of the ups and downs, good and bad, laughter and tears. It's the humanity that you see in its raw and real form when someone you love goes through something heartbreaking or when they're celebrating their best and happiest moment. I love that the five of us share all of those things together and my life in New York would never be what it is today without those girls. It was such a wonderful meal and yet another memory made.

After we ate, we all decided to walk through the park back to the east side:

There is something so special about being able to enjoy the simplest of pleasures with someone such as a casual walk on a sunny day. I feel so blessed because of who I get to share my life and these joys with. I can't wait to continue walking through life with these ladies and see where the years bring us from here: